Scanned
by Avrie Moss
Summary: What happens when a couple of teenage lunatics find a way to bring Pokemon to life? Will the Pokemon destroy their town? Or leave peacefully? Intense sibling rivalry.  Rated T because of possible swearing and violence. Please read and review.
1. The Hospital

The Factory

"Alex! Alex! It's attacking me!"

I sighed and pulled myself out of the fantasy world of the book I was reading in. My idiot brother was running around in circles, screaming like a little baby as a snake chased him around. I leaned over the edge of my porch chair to get a better look at the snake.

The snake was black, and almost as long as my arm. Running down its back were two yellow stripes that told me instantly that it wasn't poisonous. It kept striking at my brother's bare feet, trying to destroy the unknown pink menace.

That poor snake.

I sat back down and picked my book back up. "Yup. It's attacking you."

"MAKE IT STOP!"

"Why? You're not going to die if it bites you. What does Dad always say…it'll build character? That snake's making you a better person, Doug."

Doug's not really his name, his real name is Michael, but when we were kids I started to call him Doug in honor of a new movie that had come out and after a little while it just stuck. My brother is younger than me by three years, but he still stands several inches taller than me. His black hair is clumped and wet today because he's so smart that he thinks his little squirt gun can beat our crazy neighbor's, Mr. Hondell's, hose. For a second, he glared at me and his green eyes flashed with anger, but then he jumped away from another of the snake's strikes and suddenly smiled.

He jumped at the snake as it attacked him again, pinning its head under his foot. I shook my head at him and went back to my book, content that he'd built enough character for the day. Doug stuck his tongue out at me and picked up the snake by its tail.

I screamed as he threw the snake into my lap. It hissed at me and coiled in preparation to attack me. On reflex, I slammed my book closed and the snake's head was squished into a flat, bloody pulp inside the crisp white pages.

Doug wisely took off, but I was already two steps behind him intent on giving him another lesson on character. And also wiping the smug grin off his face. We raced down two blocks before my friends Ricki and Abe saw me in my bloodlust and pelted after us, yelling at me that whatever the twerp did it's not worth going to jail over.

Screw that. He threw a snake in my lap! And he still owes me 20 bucks!

We were in front of the old hospital now, its brick form in better shape than I would expect from a building that's been abandoned for a century. Years ago, this hospital was used by all of the surrounding towns, but one day the hospital lost all of its money in a huge scandal with the employees. The hospital was closed down, and with it the town seemed to die as well. Now it was the city's property and the day the mayor decided to destroy the hospital to build some new profitless attraction was beginning to draw near.

Not caring about the no trespassing signs, Doug turned sharply, nearly fell because of it, and jumped halfway up the chain link fence of the old factory. I watched him bolt into the factory and began to climb the fence to follow him.

Ricki and Abe stopped me. "Stop! Alexia, heel!" Ricki said.

"Holy cow, Alex, what'd he do?"

I held up my book, the dead snake's tail hanging out of it like a bookmark. The tail was still wiggling despite the fact that there was no way that snake had survived. They stared at it with open mouths. Ricki frowned and let go of my arm. "Destroy him."

"With pleasure." Abe caught me again.

"He put a dead snake in your book?"

"Well, no. He threw a live snake in it and then I squished its head."

"Then why don't you show your parents instead of murdering him?"

"Because they won't make him eat the snake."

"I have a better idea." Ricki said. "Let's lock you in a room together until you make up."

"Do I still get to beat him up?"

"Just don't kill him."

"OK." I relented. "But I still have to drag his butt out of the factory."

They nodded and I scaled the fence quickly, the whole fence shaking as my friends followed me. We hopped down on the other side and ran across the cement to the factory. Our faces burned as we pictured how much trouble we'd be in if someone saw us.

Ricki and I ducked behind the broken down trucks, peered out nervously, and then made a mad dash for the door like ninjas. We rolled the last few feet and popped up beside Abe.

"You can't just walk?" Abe asked as he waited impatiently for us by the door.

"Ch. No." Ricki said.

Abe shook his head and tried the door. It was locked. "I thought your brother could pick locks."

"He can. Dad taught us. He probably blocked the door so I couldn't get in."

Ricki shoved Abe out of her way. "Your dad never taught you the unfailing way to open a door." She took a deep breath and karate kicked the door. It swung open, slammed into the wall and bounced back into Ricki's hand as she held the door open for us.

Abe and I bowed to her. "Master." We said before entering the hospital. The lights were already on, a sign that my bro had indeed been through here. He'd placed a chair under the door's handle to keep us out, but Ricki's kick had sent it flying across the room and into the wall, where it had broken in two. The rest of the place was empty and dust covered; everything in a state of rot. This was the old lounge, but now it was starting to look more like the beginning of a haunted house.

"Doug, get your butt out here now and I'll accept your allowance in place of revenge!"

Doug's reply was muffled. "I don't care anymore! Come here, you've got to see this!"

"Oh, you can bet I'll come, but there's no guarantee of your survival!"

We followed Doug's footprints through the dust. They led us out of the rundown room and through several doorways, weaving and twisting through the building until I began to wonder how Doug had managed to get this far in the first place. The rooms we entered suddenly became much less rundown, the walls and floors became crisp and white and the appliances we saw became more modern than anything in my house. There were metal tubes filled with blue fluid, vials and tubes, and touch screen computers in every room. The trail of dust stopped and we were stuck in an examination room.

"Doug, where are you?" I yelled.

He didn't answer.

"MICHAEL!"

"Guys, look," Abe said. He'd turned on the touch computer, opening it onto a page with a list of numbers accompanied by strange names. The numbers were ordered from least to greatest, but there were huge gaps in between the numbers as if someone had only half done their job. He was skimming through the numbers, reading briefly the names that appeared with them.

"It looks like they forgot some numbers." Ricki said.

I shrugged and glanced at one of the names beside the numbers. My mouth fell open and I told Abe to stop, forgetting instantly about my brother.

"Those are Pokémon!"

Abe and Ricki gave me an annoyed look. They didn't like it when I talked nerd in front of them. They preferred to forget that I was a nerd that still played Pokémon. I'd been playing Pokemon since I was 8, and my brother since he was 5. It scared them to the point that they both refused to go out in public with me if I was going to speak nerd.

"Alexia, this factory was closed before Pokémon even came out." Abe said.

"Then why are there touch computers here? It's a Pokédex." I pointed to number 302, Sableye. "Why are these things even here?"

My finger touched the screen, and a new window opened. This one showed a picture of Sableye beside a bunch of numbers and figures I didn't understand. I touched the picture of Sableye and a popup window appeared saying, 'Sableye has been released.'

Was that list just somebody's PC then? A list of the Pokémon they'd caught? Well, now they didn't have a Sableye.

The door blew open suddenly and a chilling wind crawled up our spine. Miniature sand dunes appeared on my arms and I shivered. The light above us flickered and exploded.

Ricki gave a small squeal and jumped more than 2 feet in the air. The light from the computer was the only thing left to see by, and it was a pitiful light that cast more shadow skeletons than anything else. A hand touched my shoulder and I screamed. I elbowed the person and twisted around, locking their head under my arm.

"Ow! Alexia, let go!"

I dropped my brother and he scurried quickly behind Abe. "Where've you been?" I demanded. "Why didn't you answer when we called for you?"

"Seriously? I was in the next room is all! It's soundproof!"

"Prove it." Ricki growled. "Go in there and scream "I'm gay!" at the top of your lungs."

"We don't have time for that. Mom will have a heart attack if we're not home for supper."

"But Alex," he whined, "you saw the computer! It gets even better! Just come with me for a sec!"

"Are you kidding me? Do you know how much self control I'm using right now to stop myself from making you swallow your own tongue after your little stunt?"

"A lot?" Abe suggested. He turned to Doug. "Show me."

Doug grinned and held the door open for Abe. We heard him shout something before the door slammed closed. I bristled, but eventually we followed them.

The room we entered was small, containing only a small table and various bits of machinery shoved against the wall. Abe was fiddling with some advanced looking equipment on the back wall and Doug was shoving several huge piles of Pokemon cards that were on the table into one of 5 brown book bags that was on the table.

I stomped towards him and smacked him in the head. "Are you stealing? We don't steal!"

"But all these cards could sell for a hundred bucks!"

I blinked.

"You're putting them in wrong! You won't be able to fit them all in there like that! No, don't put them in that way; you'll bend them!"

There was a loud crash as Abe hit a button on one of the machines. Several objects dropped off the machine.

"Way to go. You broke it." Ricki picked up the items. They looked like the scanners they use at the grocery store to check prices, only these ones had tiny screens on the front of them and were a lot nicer looking. Plus, they were red and white like a Pokéball.

I took one from her and pointed it at Doug like a gun. When I pulled its switch a red light beam shot out, blinding Doug when it hit his eyes. Definitely a grocery scanner.

"Ow! Get that out of my eyes!"

The door suddenly swung open. Once again, the cool wind blew on us, but this time it came with a thick wall of smoke. The light exploded again, but not before I got a good look at the creature that stepped through the doorway.

It was purple and shaped like a jagged piece of ice or crystal in the shape of a tiny person. Its eyes were huge diamonds that held no feeling or soul. It had long claws that it raised threateningly above its head.

I felt like the coldness had seeped its way right into my very being.

I hadn't released somebody's Sableye on their game. I'd released it in real life.

**Thanks for reading everybody! Please read and review! Tell me what you think of Alexia, she's crazy right? I mean, who does that kind of stuff? Well, if you were honestly thinking nobody and that I'm completely stretching the truth too far about that kind of stuff, think again because I literally do that kind of stuff to my brother on a daily basis.**

**Hope you all liked it, I'll try to** **get another chapter up by next week if not sooner!**


	2. First Battle

First Battle

We couldn't see anything. The room was completely black. Beside me, I could hear my friends breathing hard as we pressed ourselves against the walls in the desperate hope that the beast wouldn't see us.

Then I remembered the Walmart scanner.

I pulled its switch and the red light shot through the darkness, glinting off the diamond eyes of the Sableye, only two feet away. We screamed and jumped out of the way as the Sableye lunged toward us. Falling onto my hands and knees, I crawled into the corner of the room, cradling the scanner and thinking furiously.

This would be so awesome if I wasn't about to die!

OK, Alexia, think! The computer was a PC. It released the Sableye. But how do I get one of the other Pokémon out to help me? Or just get Sableye back in? The scanner hadn't sucked Sableye up when it hit him, so what was it for?

And what were the cards for?

I heard Ricki scream and hurriedly connected the dots in my head. Quickly, I felt along the top of the scanner. There was a tiny slot on the top of the scanner, big enough for one of the cards.

"Doug! Where are the cards?"

"Like I know! Where's the stupid Sableye?"

"Darn you, Doug! Where are they?"

"He dropped it! Hurry up! Ricki's hurt!"

I pulled the switch on the scanner. The narrow beam cast a narrow light across the room. Abe was crouched against the wall near Ricki, who had a huge three lined cut on her arm. Doug was hiding under the table like a baby. In front of him was the bag of cards.

The Sableye was sitting on top of the table. As the light hit it, the Sableye turned to me and stood up slowly. Ricki's blood dripped from its claws as it prepared to jump at me, those diamond eyes turning red as the light hit them.

"Knock the table over!"

Doug nodded and stood up quickly, ramming his shoulder into the table's underside. The Sableye jumped towards me at the same time. I dove for the bag as the table hit the wall and the Sableye flew over my head.

Doug and I scurried over to the wall and began digging in the bag for the right card. We only had the shaking light of my scanner to look by and as the Sableye came toward us again it shook even more. Doug lost his grip on the bag and the cards spilled across the floor.

"Doug! I know I call you a mistake, but do you have to act like one?"

"Shut up and find a card!"

The Sableye's eyes glinted. It pulled its arm back and stepped toward us. Ricki's shoe hit it in the side of the head. The Sableye turned towards her, and the other shoe hit it in the face. It growled and lunged toward her.

I made my decision. I snatched up a random card and jammed it into the scanner. It beeped and the screen lit up, showing the Pokémon's name, type, and attack. Not bothering to read these, I pulled the trigger. There was a ding and a pixilated Poke ball appeared on the screen.

As the Poke ball on the screen opened, the scanner's red light shot out. It struck the floor lightning bolt style and formed into a small animal resembling ball of light on the floor. Then, it solidified into a Pokémon that I couldn't recognize.

It was a small puppy with owl eyes and bat ears. The puppy's fur was silver, literally made of silver. The gold tail and paws it had were lit by a shining white fire that chased the darkness from the room. Despite looking as threatening as a husky pup lit on fire, he had cut off Sabeleye's path to Ricki and was now growling menacingly at him.

The scanner beeped and the screen changed. Now it showed the Pokémon's name, type (it was a Faroo, a steel/fire Pokémon), moves, and life points. The only moves it knew were ember and bite.

"What is it?" Doug shoved his face in front of the screen so I kicked him in the shins.

"OK...um, Faroo, use ember."

The screen changed unhelpfully to "Faroo used Ember!" Faroo growled and multiple fire bolts shot from its mouth. The Sableye dodged, and so did we as the fire nearly scorched us.

"Fudge!"

"You suck at this! Give it to me!"

"Back off! I've seen how well you battle!"

"I'm better than you!"

"One of you shut up and do something!" Abe yelled.

The Sableye dove towards Faroo and sliced the puppy in the ear. Faroo yelped and the health bar on my screen lost a fourth of its energy. Sableye's eyes glinted from the light cast by Faroo's fire as it turned to slice Faroo again.

"Dodge! Then use bite and hold on!"

Doug flicked my ear. "Stupid! Normal attacks don't work on Sableye!"

"Shut up!" I snapped. "It's a layered idea!"

And Faroo made it look easy. He rushed Sableye, jumped up in the air to dodge the blow, and came down on top of Sableye. He snatched up Sableye's arm in his jaws and bit down hard.

"Ember, now!"

Faroo's mouth glowed red and tiny flames shot out through the holes in between his teeth. Sableye screeched and sliced Faroo, sending the little guy flying. He landed in a shocked Abe's lap and looked up at him with those adorable orange eyes. It barked and licked his hand comfortingly before leaping back into action.

He had a lot more determination than me, that's for sure.

Faroo only had half his life points remaining. On a hunch, I shot Sableye with the scanner and his health bar appeared on the screen. He still had most of his life points left, but they were slowly depleting from a burn Faroo had given him.

Sableye and Faroo continued to fight as I was distracted by the scanner. A new screen popped up saying, "Faroo used Ember!" in that completely obvious and obnoxious way it does in the games.

Sableye dodged the ember with his own attack, lowering Faroo's health to a fourth.

Doug looked at the scanner's screen and swore. "You better step up your game! If Faroo faints that'll be it! We won't be able to put in another card!"

I didn't know where his logic came from, but I didn't argue. A new popup appeared on screen. It said, "Ricki used Kick!"

I looked up. Sableye lunged at Faroo with the intention of ending the battle. Ricki jumped up, tired of watching the fight, and swung her foot out. She caught Sableye in its belly and sent it flying into the wall.

Sableye's life points dropped. Alarmingly, Ricki's name appeared on the screen beside Faroo's, giving her the moves Kick, Punch, Scream, and Run. She only had one life point.

We needed to end this.

"Faroo, ember!" I yelled.

Sableye stood up and hissed at Faroo. It held up its arms theatrically. Faroo, looking bored, spit out a stream of small fireballs.

Sableye vanished as the fireballs hit him. The scanner beeped and a popup appeared that said cheerfully, "Sableye fainted!" It dinged and a card popped out of the scanner. On it was the Sableye Faroo had just defeated.

"That...was...so cool!" Doug cried.

I slugged him.

**Yup, so that's the new chapter. Not as drop dead hilarious as it could have been, but there does come a time when we have to be somewhat serious and in a life or death battle with a Sableye is one of those times. Anyways, the upcoming chapter will hopefully contain a lot of humor, but may take a week and a half to complete.**

**I'm also trying to write out what Pokémon will be in the story. If you have any Pokémon in particular you would like to see, PM me as many as you want! Send your fab five!**

**And, as always, read and review. Constructive criticism welcome. I'd love to hear what you think of Alex, whether she annoys you or scares you. Any thoughts on Faroo? He's a new Pokémon so you must have some opinion about him!**

**Next chapter: extreme sibling rivalry and intense stupidity**


	3. Sibling Rivalry over Breakfast

Sibling Rivalry over Breakfast

We pretty much stole everything we'd found. The bags, the cards, the scanners, and we even stole the touch computer. Granted, that may have been a bit obsessive. Abe was slightly reluctant about stealing a $1000 dollar computer, but after a few head slaps and amazing pep talks by me he was okay with it.

Doug says pep talks don't involve smacking people and yelling, "We're doing it!" I disagree. Those are the only pep talks that work.

It actually turned out to be a good thing we stole the computer. We'd been lucky to come on a day when the hospital's secret workers were gone, but we wouldn't have avoided the secret cameras if we hadn't stolen the computer.

After making sure we'd deleted every scrap of footage with us in it, we headed home with the intention of meeting at my house the next day to discuss what we were going to do with the stuff. We hadn't figured out how to get Faroo to turn back into a card and, after one of my amazing pep talks failed on Faroo and the scanner, I stuffed him in my bag and snuck him inside.

Last night, he slept silently underneath my bed, being a good Pokémon and not making a peep. Then this morning he decided to try and wake me up by setting my bed on fire! Luckily, I got the fire out before it did too much damage, but I did get a few burns. Faroo was scolded severely about setting stuff on fire, until those big eyes got so filled with tears that I told him he just couldn't set _my_ stuff on fire.

Later that morning, Faroo and I sat at the kitchen table after my mom left eating muffins. Doug came downstairs, scratching at his wild hair. He walked over to the now empty muffin container.

"Did you eat my muffin?"

"Faroo did."

"I told you last night that I called dibs!"

"So? I didn't see your name on it."

"I put a note on it that…" He turned to face me, holding up a charred piece of paper.

I met his disapproving scowl with a smug grin. "Whoops."

"You can make me breakfast tomorrow then."

"Absolutely not. We have school, and I'm not getting up at 4 AM to make you waffles."

"You may not have a choice."

I rolled my eyes and began to laugh as he pulled out his scanner. I took a swig from the milk carton before I could choke on my muffin. "Seriously, Doug?"

"You scared?"

"Amused at your younger sibling stupidity. Just remember, Doug, the older sibling is almost always the more successful one."

"I'll make an exception."

"Whatever you say, but I'm finishing breakfast first. Oh, and by the way, Faroo peed on your couch so you should probably clean that up."

I'm such a jerk.

Doug stood across from me in our unfinished basement, the empty space stretching out between us. Faroo stood in front of me, hopping and wagging its tail as I played tug-of-war with him. Doug had taken a full half hour in his room before he'd come downstairs to face me, and I was not impressed.

The Pokemon in front of him was a small cat. The front half of the cat's body was blue, with tiny gold rings around its paws and a ring of black fur around its neck that resembled a collar. Its back half was black and had a short tail that ended in a yellow star.

"A Shinx? Against Faroo?"

He shrugged. "If it makes you feel better, I named it after you. Alexandria."

Alexandria looked up and purred. I scowled, not wanting to admit that I couldn't figure out what to do on my scanner to nickname Faroo.

"To be honest, it doesn't make me feel any better. You realize the irony here, Doug? I'm fighting with _man's_ best friend," I smirked, "and you're fighting with _woman's_ best friend!"

Doug chose to ignore this. "Who's the referee?"

"We can't have a referee. We'd both be disqualified for cheating." I blinked and threw my hands up in a 'timeout' gesture. "What if they vanish when they faint like Sableye did? Or just vanish forever?"

"Oh. Right. Good point. Um…first to three hits wins?"

"Sounds good. And we're offering my waffle making skills against your homemade ice cream making skills."

We both walked to the middle of our makeshift battlefield and shook hands. I grinned cockily and crushed his head with my fingers as soon as he turned his back. I took out my scanner as I walked back to my spot, smiling as I saw that Faroo had learned a new move: Quick Attack.

Doug held out his hand to me and bowed. "Be my guest."

Time to try out this new move. "Quick Attack!"

The popup screen on my scanner announced what I had just said. Faroo shot forward, seemed to disappear for a moment, and then slammed into Alexandria. Alexandria cried out and slid back several feet.

"ONE! Smell your defeat, Doug!"

"Shut up! Alexandria, use tackle!"

Alexandria jumped up and dove at Faroo, who barked angrily and jumped out of the way without me having to say anything. Alexandria fell to the ground awkwardly and I instructed Faroo to use ember.

The attack hit dead on, making tiny burn marks appear on Alexandria's skin. She cried out and fled from Faroo, shaking fearfully as she hid behind Doug.

"TWO! I'm not even sure I feel good about this one."

Doug patted Alexandria on the head and she nervously stepped back onto the battlefield. He looked at me and smiled.

"I'm going to deflate that big fat head of yours."

He pulled a card from his pocket and shoved it in the scanner. Red light shot from his scanner and hit Alexandria, turning her outline a glowing red color. While the light from his scanner vanished, the light on Alexandria didn't. A screen on my scanner said, "Alexandria learned Static Speed!"

"Static Speed? What the heck is that?" I yelled.

"Show her, Alexandria!"

Alexandria purred. The light around her turned yellow and she vanished. I yelled at Faroo to dodge, and he jumped to the side, searching for the cat. A yellow blur slammed into him and Faroo let out a loud yelp.

"ONE!"

Faroo jumped back to his feet, only to be knocked down again by the yellow blur.

"TWO!"

"Faroo, use Ember!"

He shot the attack wildly around him, not hitting anything. Alexandria appeared behind him, following his back as he turned. Her tail twitched mockingly and several of her tiny teeth became visible as she appeared to grin.

"Turn around and use it!"

Faroo whirled around, and Alexandria hit him with the attack dead on.

"THREE HITS! I WIN!"

I stood in silence for a moment. Then I came to life and stormed towards him, picking up the humiliated Faroo on the way. "Cheater! You used a TM on her!"

"No ref, remember? Those waffles better be amazing!"

As I opened my mouth to argue some more, Abe yelled at us from the top of the stairs. "What the heck are you doing? We could hear you outside!"

"You should be thanking me, Abe! I just deflated her ego!"

"Yeah, yeah, I don't care! Get upstairs! Something's wrong with the computer!"

**And there you have it. Chapter 3, half a week late. I apologize, my friend came over and then I got cut off from society for the weekend. *sigh* Anyways, I am sorry, but it's time to move on! I just wish that I had good news. I might have to quit this story to work on some more of my others, so the next chapter in a week or a week in a half may either be the last one or the last one in a while. If I start getting some feedback about my story I might keep up my attempt at consistent updates, but no guarantees people because I do have a life outside of this.**

**Also, I did make up the move Static Speed. I didn't think any of Shinx's other TM moves would be good enough for the battle so I did a smaller repeat of Faroo and made up a new move. Surprise!**

**Like always, REVIEW! Curse you people (that was meant in the kindest way possible), I want to hear opinions! Even if you hate my story, give me some constructive criticism! Tell me what you thought of Faroo, the new move, the story in general, or just comment on Alexia's general big headedness. (Yes, despite her loss today her head will always remain quite large.) Coming soon in possibly the last chapter of this unfinished story: the creepy guy who broke our computer!**


	4. Men in Black

Men in Black

I hate our house. And today, when I'm in an even worse mood because of Doug, I feel like burning the wretched thing. Honestly, this rotten baby blue house has way too many stairs for its two floors. Ricki complains about the maze of stairs every time she comes here, but she doesn't have to live in this mess. I hate the walls and carpet too; every room in the house has ugly blue wallpaper and vomit colored orange carpet. You get sick in this house, and you don't even have to bother making it to the bathroom because the puke just blends right in. OK, so we don't really do that, but you get the idea.

Doug's and my room are on the top floor, along with our shared bathroom and an empty bedroom that was supposed to belong to Mom's first baby (until she lost it). Last summer, Dad and Doug gained up on Mom and forced a renovation on his room and peeled his wallpaper off to reveal a normal white wall beneath it and replaced the orange carpet with a fuzzy brown carpet. We meant to do my room too, but since they took so long doing Doug's room mine has yet to be done. Although, Doug's room is such a disaster area that it's impossible to tell that anything was changed in it.

My pathetic room now includes a burnt bed, a desk covered in papers and homework, a cluttered closet, an antique dresser with a cracked mirror, shelves covered in books and random junk, and my video game stuff shoved under my bed. The only cool thing in my room is the huge bay window on the east side, where I can watch the sunrise each day. And I'll be doing that tomorrow when I'm making Doug's stupid waffles, darn!

I'd listened to Doug and Abe's conversation about the computer the whole way up, but I had wisely decided not to comment. The computer had apparently started blinking black and white when Ricki had turned it on, and then been unresponsive to any attempt they had made at fixing it. Doug thought that his bag might have something that could help and run off with Abe to his room.

Instead of following them, I kicked open the door to my room. Ricki stood by my desk, poking at the computer in an attempt to stop its constant flickering. But she was also sitting cross-legged on my singed bed as she texted.

I slapped my forehead. "Darnnit, you two! You're giving me twin mash up! Who's who?"

Ricki with the computer said, "Hailey."

Ricki on the bed raised her hand and said, "Ricki."

"Great! Now, what's Hailey doing here Ricki?"

Hailey cut off her sister before she could reply. "Her scanner split into two pieces; one for me and one for her. And then I used twin telepathy to go through her stuff and learn what happened."

"You did not!" Real Ricki yelled. "You went through my stuff, found the scanner, and hacked the scanner to see what it was! Then the scanner split!"

Hailey smiled and held up a scanner. "And since I'm the only one who knows how to work them, you have to include me."

I bristled unhappily. This was the reason why I always said Ricki and Hailey were fraternal twins, even though they clearly were not. Ricki was laid back, but made up for that by doing every sports activity our school offered, mostly fencing and karate. Hailey, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. She was a lazy know it all who had straight A's in school despite the fact that she spent all day playing on her computer. They were the perfect yin and yang, completed by Ricki being my best friend and Hailey my worst enemy.

Most days, I would at least _try_ to be nice to her, but I'd just lost a battle to my brother…

"What do you know about Pokémon?" I asked sharply.

She smiled. "I can learn," she said in that blunt, smart-alike way that always got my blood pumping.

Abe and Doug reappeared, with Abe stepping between us before I could punch her. "Did you fix it?"

The cocky grin vanished. "No."

"Let me try," said I. I walked over to the computer and had barely touched the blinking screen before it beeped like it'd gotten mail. An old man appeared on screen, wearing a tux and dark shades like the secret service. His face was somewhat wrinkled, but looked as sharp as a sword's edge.

"Did you fix it?" Doug asked.

"Uh…well, I found out who broke it…"

The man on the screen spoke; the sound coming seconds after his mouth had stopped moving. "You're just a bunch of teenagers!"

Faroo growled at him from his cradle in my arms. I quietly shifted him behind my back. "Well, you're just an old geezer."

"Alex!" The others shoved me aside and crowded around the computer.

"Who are you?" Hailey asked.

"Stupid question," I muttered. "He's obviously the person who put all the stuff in the hospital."

"Unimportant," he growled. "Now, look kids, you've stolen some very important and very dangerous technology. In the wrong hands it could be used as a weapon. If you don't return the stuff you stole by tomorrow, a lot of people could get hurt."

I pushed my way back in front of the scanner. "How? How is our stealing of these things related in any way to hurting people? It kind of sounds like you're threatening to hurt them to me; over a bunch of teenagers."

The man's face turned red. "That is not what I meant. That technology is necessary to protect people from the Pokémon coming through into our world!"

"So that's what the cards are? And the list? The Pokémon you've caught so far?"

"I can't say."

"What are you going to do with them?"

"I can't say. You kids are not capable of handling this kind of responsibility; I expect to find all the things you stole by the gates of the hospital tomorrow. Including the Pokémon you've already set free."

"Who are you to say if we're responsible or not? You don't know us! Your own people weren't even responsible enough to keep us from breaking into the hospital and near getting killed by a Sableye!"

"We are protecting the people from the Pokémon coming through the portal!"

"And why do you have to do that? Did you leave this portal open by accident or did you open it on purpose?"

"It opened on its own! We created the machines to protect people from the frightened Pokémon coming through!"

"So it was you who's been causing all those accidents!"

"No! It was the Pokémon! We were the ones who stopped them!"

"Considering that they're still attacking, I'd say you're not doing a good enough job. I really don't think you people _deserve_ to get the scanners back."

"And what do you intend to do with them? You have prototypes; you'll only be able to use one Pokemon each!"

"That's all we need."

The man snorted. "You are nothing but immature children. Unless you return the things you stole tomorrow, there will be consequences."

"Like?"

He shook his head at me and smiled. "Goodbye," he said and the screen blacked out.

**All right, so that's the new chapter. Not very exciting, but very much plot related so it had to be included. I might combine this chapter with the next one, so if there's not an update next week it might be because I added to this chapter. That means check the story if there's no update for those of you who didn't catch on.**

**Coming soon: the decision.**

**Read and review!**


End file.
